Patna’s dream of a Metro rail may soon come true. State government has chosen RITES Ltd to prepare detailed project report (DPR) for the Metro project.

A decision to this effect was taken at the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “The state government has chosen RITES Ltd to prepare a DPR for the proposed metro project,” Cabinet Coordination Department Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters, “A total of Rs 2.53 crore have been allotted for this purpose. Out of this, Rs 2.25 crore will be paid to RITES as consultancy fees and the rest will be paid as service tax.” The state government has proposed the metro rail project in a stretch of 40 km in Patna on a public-private partnership mode. The project is estimated to cost Rs 8,000 crore and will take almost 4-5 years to be ready.

Apart from this, the state government has also approved loans and grants worth Rs. 220 crore to Bihar State Power Holding Company (BSPHC) for strengthening power transmission and distribution (T&D) network in Bihar. It will provide BSPHC a sum of INR 49 Crore for development of old grids. Apart for this, the state government has also decided to give Rs 170 crore to ensure 100 percent metering of power consumers in the state.

With almost half of its total electricity lost in transmission and distribution, Bihar has one of the highest T&D losses in the country.